Poor Freddy Skill Sets, whenever he speaks Mets fans shout “BULLSHIT”. Every spring, Freddy usually with his sidekick/brother in law Uncle Saul Katz, putz around on a golf cart and stop long enough to tell the main stream media that covers the Mets that everything surrounding the team is sunshine and fucking lollipops. This spring is no exception except for Freddy tag team partner Uncle Saul not in attendance.

There is nothing more side splitting funny than following along on my Twitter timeline when Freddy gives his State of the Mets Spring Speech. You know the old expression “If bullshit were electricity you’d be a powerhouse”? Well, if I had a buck for every time the word “bullshit” came up in Tweets on my timeline, I’d have enough money to buy a ML outfield and donate it to the Freddy’s club.

Freddy told the masses today at Port St. Lonesome that he and his family are flush with cash, thank you very much for asking. Between the real estate businesses and his stock holdings rebounding and the success of SNY (which puzzles the living shit out me because other than Mets games what the hell is there to watch on the network? Beer Money???? Loudmouths???? Suckitude TV) has helped the Skill Sets Empire to rise again. In fact, Freddy says that times are so good, we Mets fans could see the payroll rise to the heights it was at during the Minaya administration, when Ex-GM Omar Minaya was handing out overinflated contracts like he ran Haliburton. And to that the Mets fan base rises as one and replies “BULLSHIT”

Poor Freddy not matter how he tries to convince Mets fan that he has enough Dead Presidents to sign players that will make major contributions to his team and make Septembers in Flushing meaningful again, no one believes him. It’s got to suck to be Freddy.

Maybe Freddy is telling the truth, maybe there is cash to be spent. It seems the Mets were willing to give Michael Bourn 4 years and $48 million dollars to be a Met but when Bourn and his agent wanted that 5th year vested option that it seems would be easy to attain, Sandy Alderson pulled the plug on the negotiation leaving the Cleveland Indians to get bamboozled into give giving Bourn/Boras what they wanted. Can’t say I blame Alderson for not going 5 years on Bourn.

Alderson was very forthcoming with Pope Mikey I when he stated that they miscalculated on the dealing with Scott Hairston. It seems from listening to Alderson, Justin Upton was his number one target to trade for and he thought he had enough trade chips to make a deal but it seems Kevin Towers insisted on either Zack Wheeler or Matt Harvey as headliners in any deal for Upton, which of course killed that dialog. So Plan B was go after Bourn but that draft pick, slot money and vested option became a major road block and that went south as well. During all this Hairston signed with the Cubs and as Alderson said letting Hairston go wasn’t due to contract reasons but playing times issues as it seems the Mets GM was sure of landing either Upton or Bourn and instead he has neither.

Now for this next part, you will have to put on your Freddy Says Decoder Ring because I’m pretty sure Freddy is speaking on code or in tongues, I’m not sure:

“I think we would anticipate being big investors if that were appropriate,” Wilpon said. “That depends on what the market is. If the market is such that that’s where we have to be to be competitive and winners, yeah.

Let’s see the Mets need better players and since many of the better players in the organization are barely old enough to shave I’d say yeah to be competitive you will have to invested in some proven major league talent and that will cost money, but if Freddy is on the level, he claims he has the cash to make that dash.

“This is, to me, a breakeven business. I always strive to break even. I’m not looking to make any money. I strive to break even. So if [fans] don’t show up, that’s hard. So you have to balance it. We fed it pretty good the last five or six years. I think if the market was such, yes, the payroll could go up, but not to just have payroll go up so you can write headlines — if that, in fact, improves the team.

OK now this is Bullshit. When did the New York Mets become a no-profit organization? What did you feed that last five or six years? Your attorney’s? CRG Partners to access the damage of the Madoff mess? Sure wasn’t invested in baseball players.

“I don’t know what the market will be at that point. But the payroll will be commensurate with anything we’ve ever done because we can do it. Remember, the people have to come to the ballpark obviously. If you have a competitive team, they will. Everything that was in the past, that you guys saw the pain that we went through, is gone. It’s gone.

Freddy, Freddy, Freddy there are only a few of us diehards left who support your team in good times and bad. You have lost a whole generation of fans to the Bronx Bastards. If you have the financial wherewithal you claim now would be a good time to show it off. The amount of diehard fans for any sports franchise in this town is much less than the bandwagon “I love a New York event “crowd. If what you are telling us is correct and you are ready to go back to being Big Bad Freddy and make an investment in quality Major League players that will have your team in contention for a pennant and GULP!!! A World Championship, Citi Field will be overflowing with customers on a nightly basis. Remember the 80”s Fred? Remember 3 million customers making the Shea Stadium turnstiles wiz like a carousel of cash ? Remember the television ratings that boosted a thrid rate TV station called SportsChannel into a must buy for FOX Sports? Break even? Freddy if you do this right and you are being honest with us, you and Uncle Saul will be farting through silk boxers my friend. JUST DON”T BULLSHIT US AGAIN!!!!!

We’ve learned that Josh Lewin will be Howie Rose’s tag team partner in the Mets radio booth, and that John Franco (not Edgardo Alfonzo) will be inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame. The new/old uniforms are back, that’s been discussed and of course the financial state of the Skill Sets and the club has been expounded upon by experts and those who have trouble making change for a dollar.

Just think we’ve discussed, debated and beaten to death these and other subjects about our beloved Metsies even while Super Bowls were won, hockey team looking like Cup Champs and a kid from Harvard has stolen the heart of hoops fans of NYC.

The manager, coaches and many players are in camp. Dispatches with the address Pt. St. Lucie are now showing up on the fish wraps, soon SNY will transmit pictures and sounds of our heroes in action and not a moment too soon as me thinks some of the fan base needs a baseball fix badddddddly.

Even though I nearly busted my ass walking down my ice covered driveway this morning (my kids took the tea pot and a broom outside yesterday and said they are starting the Staten Island Curling Club with my driveway acting as the home arena) it’s good to know that the Mets catchers have seen their shadows (I picture all these backstops standing around like birds on a wire) so that could only mean 6 weeks of spring training.

Speaking of catchers, yesterday the stories out of St. Lonesome had Henry Blanco as the one catcher with a roster spot sewn up but Omar Minaya says he’s not an everyday player. His tag team partner though changes everyday. One day the stories are about Omir Santos, then today we read about how Josh Thole can hit in whatever league he plays in plus he worked this off season with Bob Natal the Mets Catching Coordinator on his receiving skills. Now we are hearing that the Mets are working on signing Rod Barajas to either a minor league deal or a bargain basement ML deal. It’s to the point now that every pitcher in camp will have his own personal catcher.

Mike Silva is looking for the Mets promotional schedule on the team website but it’s no where to be found. I’m sure when they do decide to release the list of promotions it will be the same as every year, opening day schedule magnet, a couple of bobble head days, drawstring bag day, notebook day, various t-shirts and lunch bag day. Now I won’t kill these giveaway days as I have more Mets swag than I my basement can handle and I am a sucker for bobble heads but it would be refreshing to see something a little more imaginative from the Mets promo department. I don’t expect that though.

When it comes to thinking about the New York Mets this past weekend, my mind was like a car stuck in the mud, just spinning my wheels. Seriously it’s hard to come up with any more ways to analyze Jason Bay and a 5th year (isn’t every year now that the Mets are desperate to sign a big name and have to always over pay in either years or money? I thought the signing of Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran and the trade and signing for Johan Santana was supposed to end that and make the Mets THE team that players wanted to join?) or if Ryan Garko or Garrett Adkins would make a great tag team partner for Daniel Murphy or if Matt Capps or Mike McDougal would make the best set up man for Frankie Rodz or if Ben Sheets, Chin Ming Wang or Justin Duchschere would be the best slightly damaged merchandise scrap heap signing or how Omar will fill the four other spots in the starting rotation, but we have talked about these moves almost as much as the NY Post has obsessed over who Tiger Woods has been banging.

My mood is very, very glooming today due to the awful defensive display put on by the New York Football Giants last night against the Iggles from Philly. With the Dallas Cowgirls losing to the San Diego SuperChargers (if it’s December you know it’s wintertime and the Cowgirls will choke) and a big fuck you to Flozell Adams who if he played in the Staten Island Touch Tackle Football League (of which I played in some 30 years ago, 30 YEARS!!!!!! HOLY SHIT) would be in a hospital recovering from reconstructive surgery on a knee, for being a cheap shot bitch, but I digress……..what a time for the Giants D to come up small and for the special teams to fall apart as well. Oh, an a word to Iggles Coach Andy, (more Chins than the Hong Kong phone book) Reid, your fat ass will not be going to the Super Bowl so enjoy your win over the Giants, only coaches who haven’t won shit would chest bump with their players after a regular season win.

Can you feel the holiday spirit just oozing out of me? After that Giants game last I got to think of all the teams I root for which gives me the most of my rooting interest, Here are the candidates:

New York Mets

The first sports team I’ve ever rooted for and the team that gives me the most aggravation. More the way the ownership and front office go about its business is what infuriates me as the Mets are the only team I root for that does not embrace it’s history, in fact the owner not only had to be shamed into honoring the teams past but is shocked that the fan base is so adamant in celebrating the history of the team. Freddy Skill Sets ain’t exactly Tevye, you know what I mean?

New York Giants

I got involved rooting for the Giants as a kid when I started playing football at age 12. My oldest brother had season tickets for the G-Men and I got to go once in awhile (at Highlander Stadium no less) and then my other brother became friendly with the Mara’s though business so it was a natural progression to become a Giants fan. Back in the 70’s, the Giants were not very good but I was a kid and my older brothers were Giants fans so I went with the flow. But then came the 80’s and the G-Men were the cream of the NFL crop (thank you George Young and Bill Parcells) then it became cool to root for Big Blue. The Mara’s also celebrate the teams history fully as they have owned the team since it’s inception in 1925 and it doesn’t hurt they are proud Irish-Americans as well.

New York Rangers

No one in my family were hockey fans when I was a kid and now there are still no hockey fans in my family today but me. My relatives always said I was a little “different” but growing up my neighborhood in Brooklyn was a hockey hot bed. We had the finest roller hockey rink in the city on 53rd St and Ft Hamilton Parkway (it’s still there by the way) so as teenagers we spent a lot of fall and winter days playing hockey, and of course we were Ranger fans. Saturday nights on Ch 9 were Rangers Hockey Night (your Schaffer Circle of Sports) I got to see Brad Park, Eddie Giacomin and my all time favorite Ranger, Walter Tkachuk play in their famous Blue sweaters. Again there is strong tradition with the Broadway Blueshirts as they were an Original Six (I love that title Original Six!!!!!!) While I watched the Rangers on Ch 9 and listened to them on radio, I didn’t go to a Rangers game until I was 18 but the first hockey game I saw in person was a NY Raiders of the WHA game at Madison Square Garden back in 1973 (I was 15 and a bunch of us hopped the on the Sea Beach to Manhattan with our G.O cards and got blue seats for the Raiders for a couple of bucks, the Raiders played at 1 PM and the Rangers at 7:30PM. We thought about finding a hiding place in MSG until the Rangers game at night but figuring we never told our parents about our field trip to Manhattan, they might not be too happy if he didn’t come home until 11 PM or so) I held Rangers season tickets for 10 years but with a wife and two kids, it’s hard to go to 40 games a season and when you can’t make the games and have to eat the tickets, it gets quite expensive, but I was there to see the Rangers win the Stanley Cup and remember the banner in the Blue Seats that night “Now I Can Die In Peace” Of all the fans in this city no fans are more loyal than the Garden Faithful of the Rangers.

Boston Celtics

I know what you’re saying, “No Knicks?” No. Again every Sunday in the winter, I’d watch the NBA on ABC with Chris Schenkel and Jack Tyman and it seemed every Sunday, the Celtics were on TV. Sure I watched the Knicks on Ch 9 (WOR Ch9 was our sports channel only the upper crust in Manhattan had something called “cable tv” ) but I was mesmerized by John Havlicek, JoJo White, Coach Red Auerbach and the great basketball player of all time, Bill Russell. Plus, I thought they were all Irish because of the shamrock, green and well they were the Celtics. Of all my rooting interests, this team has won the most championships and I know a lot of fans hate the team and its fans for that fact. Tough shit!!!!!!!! It is weird though when I go to MSG to see the C’s dressed in my Celtics regalia and Knicks fans yell at me to “go back to Boston” and I yell back “I’m from Brooklyn, asshole” Classy, I know

Baseball’s garage sale begins tonight A/K/A the non-tendered players go on the free agent market and there are some players on the list that would help the Mets immeasurably like:

RHP Kevin Corriea

The Padres are trying to have the lowest payroll since the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings started paying players so a very good #4 pitcher like Corriea will be sitting out there to the highest bidder. Right now Corriea would be better than anyone other than Johan Santana in the Mets rotation.

Garret Atkins/Ryan Garko

Either player would be an excellent compliment to Daniel Murphy as a right handed hitting tag team partner at first base.

RHP Chien-Ming Wang

Yes he is coming off injury and yes he is a Highlander but Wang is perfect for the Mets if sound as a ground ball pitcher, Wang won’t be ready to pitch until May but Omar has signed bigger question marks than Wang so he’s worth an incentive laden contract. I’ll be surprised if the Highlanders let him go though.

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